The best-known, and longest-running sports venue in Trenton, held its final event yesterday.

With a packed house of 4,000 filling the Trenton High gym that for over 60 years has been special.

“It is heartbreaking to think it will be no more, and all the great athletes who played here, the great coaches who coached here and the great games played in this gym won’t forget it,” said Trenton’s legendary trainer Poppy Sanderson. “From my days as a little boy when my dad brought me here I got to know what a special place Tornado Alley was.”

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It was a sentiment echoed throughout the county’s oldest sports venue that will be torn down and replaced by a new arena as Trenton High gets its long-awaited, and much-needed school.

The fifth annual Marco Dillard Memorial Alumni Games that featured former Trenton boys and girls players from the ‘60s to the past five years, was the final competition on the court.

But it was just the opportunity to be in the arena one more time that drew such a big crowd they had to add additional seating behind the baskets - something that had been done for years.

Five of Trenton’s last six boys basketball coaches were saluted along with current coach Greg Grant, who has kept the great tradition going with a team that made it to the state championship game three weeks ago - and went 13-0 in its final year in The Alley.

The long-awaited return of legendary Tornadoes coach Fran Pinchot, drew the biggest cheers from the crowd. The coach who won 120 of 140 games in his six seasons joined his successors Len Carmichael, Bill Clark, Gene Leggett and Randy Morrison, in one endless series of photo shoots.

“There’s never been a better place to play basketball. I enjoyed every minute of it,” said Pinchot. “There were so many great games, so many memories you never want to forget.”

Pinchot, like so many of his former players and even the ones who starred before them, recalled that legendary triple overtime game with Paterson Eastside and its All-American guard Rory Sparrow that packed every seat in The Alley and had fans sitting on the court right up to the endline.

“The games that always packed The Alley were when the teams from North Jersey came in,” said Len Carmichael, Pinchot’s successor who made the trip from his Elizabeth City, N.C. home to get one last look at the gym, where he starred as a player and later coached three years.

Making the day extra special was getting to show off the NCAA Division III national championship trophy that former Trenton girls stars Kara and Kyra Dayon led their FDU-Florham Park team to last week, capping a 31-0 season.

Kyra Dayon was named National MVP in NCAA III.

Basketball was always the biggest drawing card at Tornado Alley, starting each December with the annual tipoff event - The March of Dimes Tournament - pitting the then eight county schools.

But it wasn’t always the Tornadoes in the spotlight.

Trenton’s professional Colonials of the 1960s would fill the gym on Sundays to get a glimpse of future NBA players like Bob Love and M.L. Carr.

Those never-to-be-forgotten Sports Nite spectaculars when the girls took over and competed in four nights of acrobatic, dance and music competition that drew TV crews from New York and Philly was the biggest show in town.

You had to reserve tickets weeks ahead to make sure you got into the gym.

Now it’s gone, to be replaced eventually by a new state-of-the-art gym. While the new gym is being built Tornadoes games will likely be played at Rivera School on North Montgomery St., but Tornado Alley will live on for years to come in the hearts of Trenton players, coaches, fans and even visiting teams who got to play in Trenton’s best-known - and most cherished - sports arena.